From Silver Nightmares to Golden Dreams
by OppositeNebula
Summary: After surviving over the Aquatempesta at Nord, Debito and the famiglia are still on the search for the cure to Mondo's predicament. They come across a young woman who is seemingly a good candidate for hosting a Tarocco...but are things really as simple as they seem?


Chapter 1

The Girl on the Beach

It was a bright morning, skies blue, winds high and perfect for sea voyages. The docks in the distance were busy with cleaning and rebuilding after the typhoon yesterday. Part of the pier's end had collapsed and now most of the activity in the port were from the workers repairing the damage as well as cleaners tidying up spoiled cargo strewn about. The ships in port looked worse for wear, torn sails and debris around, but apparently the island had narrowly escaped destruction by some small miracle. Nordia's bay was almost as naturally well-protected as Regalo's, and highly favorable to sea trade, and so it was surprising that a typhoon had freakishly conjured a massive tidal wave that had threatened to decimate the island.

The stretch of beach leading away from the piers were likewise messed up, with lots of garbage, seaweed, and kelp dragged high unto the sands. Crates or broken wood pallets were here and there, possibly from some of the unfortunate ships had been caught in the foul weather past, or the remainds of the broken part of the docks. The natural gentle concavity of the bay did not drag a lot of sea debris to the beach in the usual mornings, but today the beach would need a crowd to help clear away the flotsam and jetsam and restore the sandy promenade to normalcy. Piles of driftwood and streams of kelp littered the shore, among broken parts of wood pallets, barrels and and other minor wreckage from ships and the pier. An occasional dead fish or other sealife could be found tangled in the seaweeds, and as the warmth of the day grew, the smell became less and less pleasant.

All the more everyone wanted to finish as fast as possible. The group had split up, and started to methodically tidy up from opposite ends of the beach, planning to meet in the middle. The two teams were a mix of residents from all ages; almost all businesses that fronted the bay volunteered to get the cleaning done as fast a possible. Despite the trash, the light and bright atmosphere as a welcome change from the gloomy of the recent rains.

Following Mondo's orders and Bambina's investigation, they had come to Nordia looking for clues to the origin of the Tarocco cards and the Arcana powers. They'd unearthed that Nordia, a city more northern than warm and sunny Regalo, had been the birthplace of their Arcana powers, along with new allies and relatives. Long story short, there had been a few reunions, and a joining of forces that had actually prevented the fated Aquatempesta, a massive tsunami that came every hundred years, from washing Nordia away.

As part of the effort to show goodwill and cameraderie, the Famiglia had volunteered to help Nordia out before they returned to Regalo. Debito, Luca, and Felicita were assigned to the beach crawl team. They had swapped their usual suits for more functional coveralls and work gloves, blending in nicely with most of the local beach cleanup team. As usual, Luca was fussing all over the redhead, making sure his princess did not get her gloved hands too dirty from picking up garbage.

Debito trailed behind them, a small smirk on his lips. This was the one girl that didn't need to be taken care of, having bested all of them in that tournament long ago. He paused from hauling a piece of driftwood to the pile, thoughts occupied with that sweet train of thought. Bambina of the two cards, the only person known to posses two Arcanas at the same time. Felicita not only emerged as the Duello's victor, taking her future into her own hands, but she had also unselfishly thought about the Famiglia's future.

Long before that, she turned out to be his savior from the curse of his own Arcana power. His hand self-consciously rested on his eyepatch for a quick moment. Even this freak tsunami could have been exponentially much worse if she had not stepped in. With a pensive sigh, Debito focused back on the task at hand. Bambina had a way with everybody, he thought, as he snuck a glance at the future Donna, and yet again smiled in spite of himself. Her innocence was a strong magnet to his old, jaded bones, and even though he was merely past his mid-twenties he felt much much older when she looked at him with her guileless green eyes. His peridot eye that was like hers reminded him everyday of the way she, Luca, and Pace had saved him, the depth of their love for him, but also that the way she loved him as part of her Famiglia, as a brother and his future Donna, will not equal to his romantic affection for her. He knew it was going to take a while before he got over her, and he wasn't in any hurry.

Women were always around, for a distraction, for a quick spot of fun. It was mutual fun every time, he made sure of that; there were many other things in life that were too serious and complicated enough. Things like running the Casino and other businesses and organizing the Coins. Things like commitments and promises and loyalty and relationships. One blonde came close and chatted him up a bit, mentioning a small get together later at some bar along the promenade. Her older friend joined her, introducing herself as the bar owner, smiling at him, and Debito had a quick vision of waking up the next day sandwiched between two blondes in his sheets. He smirked, and replied he will see them again later.

He wasn't morally neutral, but Debito calculated that he did not have a endless credit line of noble qualities. He wouldn't pretend nor fight to prove his honor too. Having his place in the family, his brothers, and the Coins—to be noble for them, to keep their welfare in mind, was already enough for him. It was only their opinion that mattered to him, well, most of the time, and definitely still excluded Jolly's opinions. Sometimes the weight of this small circle was even still too much for L'Ermita. After Bambina had rescued him and Pace had changed his eye, his Tarocco had indeed become more stable, more patient, but there were times when he doubted this peace, doubted himself. Then again, in recent times, the Arcana had indeed become less and less stable, often affecting Mondo severely, and drove Felicita to search for the solution.

He noted that as he piled more driftwood unto the back of the small pickup, another cute brunette from the cleanup crew threw him an inviting glance. Unable to help himself, he smiled back, hand raking through his silver slicked-back hair, memorizing the face for later. Nordia was a new place for him, and he wasn't in any hurry to sail back to his duties in Regalo. Apparently there was still much to see here, Debito thought as he tried to sober his smirk.

He was pulled out of his reverie by Luca's exasperated whine.

"Debito, can you please convince milady that she can just leave the heavy lifting to us?!"

Dusting his hands, Debito looked over to the pair with a an expression that said he'd already given up before even trying. The girl was headstrong but knew her strength, and he wasn't about to treat her like a fragile thing. Felicita was trying to pull apart a bunch of broken pallets and crates that had washed up on the shore in a heap. Luca was trying, with difficulty, to swat her away, but at the same time also trying to jostle and pull the same piece of wood Fel had.

"Bambina, Luca is not underestimating you, but please let us do the better part of the manual labor," he said, trying to placate the redhead.

The young woman stopped and put her hands on her hips. "Debito, if you are going to have me believe that you view me as capable, I'd rather you not call me a baby. Both of you are just making the work longer by arguing with me."

Debito shook his head and went around the pile of debris, trying to plan how to dismantle it. The tangle of seaweed made it look like they'd fished these out of a deepsea shipwreck. It would have been easier if they had just pooled whatever they found on the beach for burning, but Nordia was much more sensitive to the environment and did not want to taint the white shores with ash and burning. He pulled a beam of wood about to topple off…and then he saw it.

A bare leg, sticking out at the bottom of the pile, tendrils of kelp twined around it.

He froze for a split second, not wanting to disturb the pile for fear of injuring the trapped person even more. Debito didn't want to think anything opposite of being alive. He bent a knee, putting a hand on the inside ankle, trying to feel for a pulse. Despite the skin being pale and soaked, he could feel a fading beat within the slender limb. Then, in sync, he felt his heart pound so strongly, his chest so hot that he had to place a hand over his heart to check if this was happening or just in his head.

"S-stop, there's someone under here," he breathlessly ground out.

His warning came too late, as pieces of wood started to tip towards the immobile leg, and Debito found himself down on both knees in the wet sand, lifting and pushing against the small beams, trying to keep the pile stable. "Luca!"

The other two came around, with Luca quickly kneeling alike and putting his shoulder to assist Debito. The pile wasn't heavy, but precarious nonetheless.

Felicita crouched down and peeked under the debris, calculating if they would give more harm or not. "Can you guys hold it until I get more help? I'm not sure if moving these will—"

"There's no time for that," Luca replied, seeing the leg's color. With the stark sunlight it already looked pale and bluish. Luca took one look at Debito, and was puzzled why the usually composed man looked so confused. He had to act now; something seemed to be up. "Milady, watch out." His remark caught Debito's attention, and with a quick nod, both lifted and pushed the bunch of beams up and off to the side.

It was a woman with long blonde hair, face-down, one leg tangled in long seaweeds. Her clothing did not look like it came from Nord, and the tattered and oversized blouse and long skirt were crusty from drying saltwater and sand. A traveller, from the numerous belts and pouches that wrapped around her waist, and definitely not a noblewoman. She looked like she had hung to a piece of wood, and her arm was still clutching it.

Debito felt his vision tunneling as he just stood there, inexplicably frozen. The heat from his chest had returned and amplified, and his hand returned over his heart unconsciously. At the back of his mind, he could hear Felicita calling for the medics while she crouched beside Luca, who was checking the girl's breathing. It was like watching everything from outside a window. More people came and it felt like his distance from her grew even more. Now he could only see her ankle, the one he palpitated earlier. There was a mark on the outside, hadn't he noticed that before? It seemed like seaweed, no, there was definitely a mark. A mark that looked like a stigmata.

Felicita backed away as the first responders took over. Looking around, she noticed that the silver-haired man stood apart and looked lost in thought. She waved a hand, trying to catch his attention, and he turned to her, startled, and Felicita met his confused eyes. "Debito, are you alright—?" The redhead's breath caught as Gli Amanti unwittingly and unavoidably read his heart—and what she saw stunned her as much as him.


End file.
